The International STa"M Forum

I recently received an order for parshiyos for size 31 batim w/o the parshiyos going into the titura elyona. Does anyone know the approximate dimensions of such batim? How tall can the klaf of the parshiyos be and how wide can the diameter of the shel yad and the length and width of the shel rosh be? (The order is for parshiyos on klaf that is m'ubbad ba'afatzim, which is generally much thicker than standard klaf, so all of the dimensions are important.) I am assuming that he will most probably be using either Sheinfeld or Dovid Starik fold-free batim, if that makes a difference as far as the chalalim.

I'm not a big expert on batim so advice is appreciated. I know that one broken tefira (or even sometimes 2) can be kosher if it's on the side, but the a broken tefira in the corner that ruins the Zavit is Pasul. This shel yad had a long gid coming out of it. I wasn't sure what it was so had a look and it seemed that it's from the corner tefira underneath.  Perhaps it was the end of the tefirot but it seems to have been badly looped because I pulled lightly at the bottom at it almost pulled out all the way through, so it seems that it's not actually tied to anything. Just pulled through.  The other 3 cornea tefirot (2 on top and 1 on bottom) are a bit loose but they seem to be still connected even if loose. Does this one bottom corner tefira that isn't really connected posel the tefillin? Must it be opened and re sealed?

Can anyone recommend a source for high-quality small Batim? By "small" I mean 28mm and under, including pitzponim . I am looking for good craftsmanship as well as hiddurim such as truly prudos , holes for chut ha-tfira on the outside, etc. Preferably a Batim Macher you rely on personally or has an excellent hechsher such as Eidah Chareidis . Thank you.

It happened to me again last Friday. I found a missing word in someone's tefillin. The owner of the tefillin is about 55, he bought the tefillin about twenty years ago and had them checked only once since then. The first question I always get asked in these situations is "Was I yotzei mitzvas tefillin for the past 20 years or not?" When it's a psul like a small negiya, there is yesh lismoch. Likewise with nifsakim, spacing and other potential errors, you can find what to rely on for the past. But it's hard to sugar coat a spelling mistake. There is one teshuvah from the Har Tzvi that's seems to imply you are yotzei if your intent was there, even if the tefillin were possul. Is this a limmud zchus or actually the halacha? I never got it clear. I like to make people feel better, but I need to base it on something legit. If anyone has teshuvos or mekoros or advice on this inyan I'd like to please know about it.

Question for Reb Moshe: Today I checked a pair of tefillin where the ribuah of the bayis was OK on the top but towards the bottom the bayis got a little wider and swollen (probably from moisture or sweat). When measurimng with a caliper it was like 1.7 out (between orech and rochev). So I used a knife to shave off some of the bayis from both sides. I took off about .5 of a mm from each side, thus bringing the ribuah back to a kosher size. My concern is that I remember once speaking with R' Yossi Altien, (a sofer and batim expert in the US) who told me to be careful when shaving batim as it could open a "fold" and one could unwittingly make a hole. I am no expert on batim, so the big question is,what are the chances of this happening? I lifted the batim to the light after I shaved them before I repainted them. The dull light came through but I did not see any "bright light" indicating a crack or hole. Also when looking at the actual bayis where I shaved, I se